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Mona Charen: Russia Spies, America Apologizes
Arriving at a biker’s convention in Ukraine on his Harley Davidson trike, Vladimir Putin offered a few observations on his recent celebratory meeting with the 10 Russian sleeper agents deported from the United States. “They had a very difficult fate,” the former KGB colonel noted sympathetically. “They had to carry out a task to benefit their motherland’s interests for many, many years without a diplomatic cover, risking themselves and those close to them.”
The reunion was heartwarming. They sang patriotic songs and “talked of life.” Putin assured them, The Associated Press reports, that they would have good jobs and a “bright” future.
How sweet. But before they ride off into the Russian sunset on their Harleys, it’s worth pausing to consider just what chumps we have been throughout this episode. That Putin should be utterly brazen and unrepentant about this breach of law and diplomatic etiquette is not surprising. But our conduct, both official and unofficial, was pathetic.
Let’s review. From the start, the Obama administration reacted to the exposure of the spy ring as if we were the ones who should be embarrassed. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued an angry denunciation of the arrests, calling them “unfounded” and in pursuit of “unseemly goals.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added that it was “regrettable” that these arrests should have occurred at a time when the United States claimed to seek a “reset” of relations.
Whoa. Who spied upon whom? Surely it was the Russians whose commitment to a “reset” in relations was called into question. But no, the White House and State Department pretty much confirmed Lavrov’s interpretation. State Department spokesman Phil Gordon stressed that the Justice Department was on its own “channel” and that the arrests, far from casting a shadow over the new relationship with Russia, merely highlight the need for greater “trust and cooperation” between us. As for President Barack Obama, spokesman Robert Gibbs said he had “no reaction” to the arrests and was sure it would not affect our relations with Russia.
So eager was Obama to avoid giving offense to the nation that violated our laws and sovereignty that he rushed to repatriate the spies in what must have been the fastest trade in espionage history. Few seemed to notice or care that by bundling them back to Mother Russia so precipitously, we sacrificed any opportunity to question them about their contacts here (i.e., potential American traitors), other possible sleeper cells or anything else. Of course, it’s possible that the conventional wisdom — that they cost Russia a pretty penny without producing any valuable intelligence — is true. But now we’ll never know.
The U.S. media also behaved poorly. Many Washington reporters demanded to know why the arrests had come so soon after Obama and Dmitry Medvedev shared a burger — recapitulating the State Department narrative that it was somehow ungracious of us to arrest their spies. And those were the serious members of the media! Most were not serious, and amused themselves posting sexy photos of Anna Chapman. She “could have warmed up any Cold War night,” The Washington Post leered.
But leave it to NPR to supply the most, ahem, party-line reaction. Reporting on June 29, Dina Temple-Raston introduced her story this way: “Anyone who picked up a copy of El Diario La Prensa, New York’s largest Spanish-language daily, would have heard of Vicky Pelaez. She’d been a reporter and columnist at the paper for 20 years. So imagine the reaction of her colleagues when they found out that she and her husband were arrested this week as Russian agents.”
Pelaez’s boss, Gerson Borrero, was “shocked, surprised, incredulous ... I thought it was a joke. ... She’s just like any other journalist. She happens to be writing in Spanish, but nothing out of the norm, nothing that would indicate to me that she was a part of this.” Temple-Raston then quoted a Barnard College professor who assured listeners that these spies were “holdovers from a bygone era” who had not harmed U.S. interests at all.
Very soothing. But National Review’s Jay Nordlinger reports that on her desk, Pelaez kept photos not just of Che Guevara but of Abimael Guzman (founder of Peru’s crazed Shining Path, a Maoist terror group). She routinely praised Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and other leftists. Fidel Castro, she wrote, “is already immortal,” and he quoted her with gratitude as well.
What’s wrong with us? The editor of La Prensa is shocked that such a woman was in the pay of Moscow? NPR finds it equally mystifying? And no one, from the White House to the tabloids, is worried about whether hanging a “kick me again” sign on our backs is a good idea?
— Mona Charen writes for Creators Syndicate. Click here for more information or to contact her.
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» on 07.28.10 @ 08:50 AM
Yeah, and you’d think we’d have learned from the Russians that occupying Afghanistan can drain your treasury and push you over the edge into economic ruin. Oh, but we’re so much better than the Russians, aren’t we?
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» on 07.28.10 @ 09:43 AM
Well we would be if self loathing European socialist worshipping sycophants like you would just get out of the way. So much of the war in Afghanistan has been hampered by a timid GOP still trying to act like what the DNC thinks matters.
We have the means and the military will to put this war to rest with a victory. But noooooo, we want to show the world that war is nice and clean and no one gets hurt. What rubbish! Meanwhile our soldiers are getting creamed because they are told not to fight. Turn the damned place to glass right along with Pakistan and Iran. Nothing will convince the terrorists more of American resolve than a good chunk of really scorched earth that’s uninhabitable for the next 100 centuries. Send in a suicide bomber we eliminate another Muslim country. Fly another plane into a building and there goes another Muslim country. Support radical, suicidal, murderous islamo-fascist and watch your religion become extinct. This Empty is what these people understand. Your liberal/progressive, capitulating, cowardly, “oh, let’s talk”, spineless, “they’re just misunderstood” garbage only reads “weak and pathetic” to these nut cases. They do understand raining death from above. They do understand F with us and you and all your people are dead.
Save it Empty, I already know what your infantile response will be. The point is if you go to war then fight like you damned well mean it and if your enemy does not capitulate fully and completely, then kill them all. There is no other alternative than your own capitulation.And unlike you most of us are unwilling to surrender.
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» on 07.28.10 @ 10:33 AM
People like you may enjoy contributing your opinions on how much better geo-political events could be handled but like most chickenhawks, you’re little more than an armchair tourist and Monday morning quarterback. Believe it or not, “killing them all” is not a legitimate military strategy. As for your comment on destroying Iran, they are a non-Arab nation with a society that has roots thousands of years older than our adolescent culture and a prosperous, highly educated population with just as much right to exist on this planet as us. Your ignorance, empty rhetoric and cowardly self importance truly reflects all the worst characteristics of our country. Where do miscreants like you come from and how can we ensure they don’t further discredit the rest of us? On a more personal note, I actually feel sympathy toward you. Your anger and blood-thirsty hatred is very revealing and frankly is sad to witness. You must be a very unhappy and lonely person. Do you have family or anyone to talk to during your time of crisis? I don’t know if you’re spiritual or not, but wishing for the deaths of millions of other human beings indicates that you need to find some kind of peace and salvation. Your mindset is certainly not normal and probably quite unhealthy for you. I sincerely hope you find some comfort and serenity.
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» on 07.28.10 @ 05:03 PM
Now we can add war monger to the many odd personal issues that AN50 has revealed himself to be afflicted with . Good idea ANman , lets kill millions of innocent people while trying to irradicate the 100 al Queda in Afghanistan .
Then lets bomb the poop out of Iran , where thousands marched in support of the U.S. after 9/11.
Empty has it right . You are a chickenhawk just like your heroes Cheney and Bush.
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» on 08.01.10 @ 08:47 AM
Ah boys, I was being facetious. You know what that means, right? My, you guys sure are easy to spin up, care for another button pushing session?
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» on 08.01.10 @ 10:23 AM
Bush is the best your side can do. And it just isn’t good enough. Stop hurting your country and quit your clueless conservative ways - they don’t work for your own situation or anyone else’s.
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